These comments will be posted in two parts.
It was probably a three-year hiatus until Dance FAR – Dance For a Reason, was resuscitated through the efforts of San Francisco Ballet soloist Steven Morse, utilizing eleven dance organizations and their dancers volunteering their time
to benefit two organizations. The two beneficiaries were The International Rescue Committee and Gugulethu Ballet Project. The results were consistently interesting, some of the choreography arresting and, overall, spectacularly good dancing, not just evidence of virtuosity but sensitive interpretive smarts. Eight of the eleven dances seen were pas de deux, perhaps to be expected in a benefit gala.
Both as prelude and mid-way exposition, video footage gave the audience comments by Garen Scribner and James Sofranko, the initial organizers of this annual benefit concert plus a dizzying series of clips from some of the dances seen in past seasons. Steven Morse provided verbal credits to sponsors and assistants for the evening, comments clearly drafted on his cell phone.
The near-capacity audience was peppered with individuals eager to greet friends and colleagues; for me it was dancers long enjoyed turned directors whose companies were included in the program, starting with Lauren Jonas and Diablo Ballet whose Amanda Farris and Michael Wells danced an excerpt from Julia Adams Vibrate.
This pas de deux was rendered intriguing by means of a hoop; the dancers danced in it together, one in, one out, held it at arms length, placed one another inside it at various points, dancing to gentle music by Rufus Wainwright. Farris, dressed in blue striped tunic and shorts, seemed very confident, while Wells, much more stoic, rendered uncertainty at various points and was left holding the hoop at the end. It was an excellent work to commence the program.
From the mild to the intense Axis Dance Company was represented by Lani Dickinson and Janpistar in choreography credited to Maurya Kerr, Alex Ketley and Bobbi Jane Smith, an excerpt from In Defense of Regret to rumbling music by Emily Adams and Matan Daskat. Janpistar commenced the passage upstage left in his wheelchair, wheeling adroitly, stoicly, keeping his maneuvers more or less in that general area. Lani Dickinson suddenly appeared downstage right in a short blue tunic, clearly distraught, her slender legs shooting skyward in some of the most beautiful arabesques of memory, her slender, elegant torso twitching and twisting to accommodate her chaotic emotions.
Naturally, you know the two were going to meet and in doing so give the audience some spectacular evidence of adroit wheelchair maneuvers, supported movement and vivid encounter. That such could be done inventively, smoothly and with such conviction is testimony to the performing artists, the choreography and the imaginative concept of the company itself.
An excerpt from Upstream, a trio from Michael Lowe’s choreography for Menlowe Ballet featured Akira Takahashi in unusually gymnastic statements along with Patience Gordon and Fabiana Santiago. Danced to music by Wang Dong the trio sported bright orange-red, skin-hugging costumes by Yong Sun; the women each had a single sleeve of black running from just below the shoulder to the wrist, for all the world looking like special tatoos. Takahashi’s opening was marked by surprising aerobic lifts, moving from upstage to down stage center, while the women seemed to circulate horizontally, primarily in mid range.
SF Danceworks provided a menacing and murky pas de deux, an excerpt from Laura O’Malley’s Room for Error. She also costumed the two men, Nick Koros and Andrew Brader in muted, off shades of green and blue, trousers and long-sleeves tee shirts,. Having them dance to J.S. Bach, Dustin O’Halloran, Ludwig von Beethoven and Hildur Guanadottir, was a mix so skillful I was unaware of what began or segued into what. The skillful lighting by Harry Rubeck masked, then slowly revealed a table, chair with barricade behind, with one lurking behind the clearly distraught other in front. There followed head turning, resistance, increasing physical encroachment and engagement to ultimate death throes.
From the grim to the lyrical Prokofiev encounter of Cinderella and her prince with San Francisco Ballet’s Dores Andre and Carlo di Lanno, we were treated to Christopher Wheeldon’s take of the fairy tale and Julian Crouch’s gossamer golden costume worn by Andre contrasted to diLanno’s scarlet tunic banded in gold. What fascinated me was the subtle growth in the encounter and the pace established by the two artists as they built the story of the fairy tale romance, a skill to be admired in both, the ultimate emphasis on choreographic technical demands.
mywesterneye/woollywesterneye 
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